Roman law

Lore & Background

The jurist Sextus Pomponius said, 'At the beginning of our city, the people began their first activities without any fixed law, and without any fixed rights: all things were ruled despotically, by kings.' Before the Twelve Tables (i.e., between 754 and 449 BC), private law comprised the Roman civil law (ius civile Quiritium) that applied only to Roman citizens and was bonded to religion. The ius civile of the time was undeveloped, with attributes of strict formalism, symbolism, and conservatism. It is believed that Roman law is rooted in the Etruscan religion, emphasizing ritual. The first legal text of the Roman law is the Law of the Twelve Tables, dating from the mid-fifth century BC. The plebeian tribune, C. Terentilius Arsa, proposed that the law should be written in order to prevent magistrates from applying the law arbitrarily. After eight years of political struggle, the plebeian social class convinced the patricians to send a delegation to Athens to copy the Laws of Solon; they also dispatched delegations to other Greek cities for a like reason. In 451 BC, according to the traditional story, according to Livy, ten Roman citizens were chosen to record the laws, known as the decemviri legibus scribundis. While they were performing this task, they were given supreme political power (imperium), whereas the power of the magistrates was restricted. In 450 BC, the decemviri produced a set of laws inscribed on ten tablets (tabulae), which were considered unsatisfactory by the plebeians. A second decemvirate is said to have added two additional tablets in 449 BC. The resulting Law of the Twelve Tables was subsequently approved by the people's assembly. Modern scholars tend to challenge the accuracy of Roman historians. They generally do not believe that a second decemvirate ever took place. The decemvirate of 451 BC is believed to have assumed the leading functions in Rome and included the most controversial points of customary law. Questions concerning Greek influence on early Roman law are still much discussed. Many scholars consider it unlikely that the patricians sent an official delegation to Greece, as the Roman historians believed. Rather, the Romans acquired Greek legislations from the Greek cities of Magna Graecia, the main portal between the Roman and Greek worlds. The original text of the Twelve Tables has not been preserved.

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